Who

Jocelyn Benson is Michigan’s Secretary of State and candidate for Governor. She ascended into the national spotlight in 2020 as one of the “Women from Michigan” who successfully blocked the attempt to overturn with the accurate results of the 2020 presidential election.

What

In The Purposeful Warrior, Benson shows us how to turn fear and frustration into a fight for integrity and truth. In times of intense conflict and anxiety it’s easy to believe we are powerless to make a difference. But we’re not. We are purposeful warriors.

Why

Jocelyn says her book “started as my take on what it was like to stand up to a President and protect the votes of Michiganders in 2020. It evolved into a book about the power we all have to define a better world—for ourselves, the people we love, and the places we call home—even in turbulent times. So let’s go.”

& We

…chose The Purposeful Warrior because it is a testament to the power of standing up for truth and for each other. An inspiring read for anyone looking to make a positive impact. Enjoy!

Here’s Your Exclusive Excerpt

When one of us stands in our power and pushes forward in service to our vision and goals, we can move mountains. Imagine what a community, a country, a world full of purposeful warriors could do.

Imagine what can be done if we come together, collectively standing up for what’s right for ourselves and those around us, and apply these nine steps on our paths:

1. Show solidarity. Stand up for others and embrace others’ fights for fairness and dignity as your own.

2. Call out bullies. Speak truth to power, even if it means going rogue.

3. Speak your truth. Don’t give anyone else the power to define who you are and what you can accomplish.

4. Embrace challenges with grit and grace. Activate your bravery muscle and exercise it with kindness and empathy.

5. Commit to innovation and continuous improvement. Approach every task with an innovative spirit, question assumptions, and take what seems to be working just fine and make it extraordinary.

6. Channel anger into action. Take the fire that underlies pain and rage and transform it into action.

7. Be mission driven. Chase results, not accolades, and measure your impact through your effect on others’ lives.

8. Build your own board of directors. Work to intentionally surround yourself with people who will support you, mentor you, and help you stay on your path.

9. Never give up. Practice strength, resilience, and perseverance, and see challenges as opportunities to grow stronger.

We don’t have to look far to see what could happen if we all embrace these principles as individuals—and as communities. To quote Margaret Mead, there are examples throughout history of a small group of “thoughtful, committed citizens” who change the world. “Indeed,” she tells us, “it’s the only thing that ever has.” Countless transformative stories, from the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and the women’s movement in the United States, to the end of apartheid in South Africa, reinforce this truth.

We can find those examples all around us. I got a personal glimpse into that power—the real and unrivaled influence that citizens standing together in unity as purposeful warriors can generate—back in 2020, during one of the lowest moments of our battle to protect Michigan’s election results that year.

In Michigan, our elections are finalized by a vote of each local county board of canvassers, who have a ministerial responsibility to review the procedures and vote tallies in their county to ensure they are accurate. The state board of canvassers then follows with a final vote to certify and make the results official.

On November 16, 2020, the day of the board of canvassers meeting in Wayne County, the county in which Detroit sits, we received word that President Trump was personally calling the commissioners to pressure and cajole them into not certifying.

I came home that day feeling completely discouraged and defeated. Even though there was no valid reason not to finalize the election results, there was little I could do in that moment to stop a sitting president from successfully pressuring this board to delay or block the finalization of accurate and legitimate election results.

Of course, if the commissioners voted not to certify, they’d be violating the law, and we were prepared to go to court to force certification at the local and state level, where we were confident we’d win. But blocking certification in Wayne County and pushing the issue to the courts would delay the finalization of Michigan’s election results and create enough doubt and uncertainty to enable the Trump campaign to push Pennsylvania, which was voting to finalize its election results the next week, to perhaps delay its certification as well. And we knew other dominos would fall after that.

How could we overcome the pressure of the president of the United States on local and state officials? Were the facts and law not enough?

Then something I’ll never forget happened.

Hundreds of citizens showed up to the meeting of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers that evening. One by one, over the course of several hours, each spoke up to remind the canvassers of their duty under the law to make sure their votes counted.

They stood firm, didn’t flinch, and demanded that their votes be certified as required under the law. Their voices mattered. And they would be heard.

One by one, they stood up for themselves. Together, they stood up for their community. All of them stood up for democracy.

Their actions, their voices, and their passionate, truthful arguments to the commissioners worked. These determined citizens turned the tide. The Wayne County Board of Canvassers ultimately fulfilled its duty, followed the law, and certified the 2020 election results. As a result, the state of Michigan, despite all the efforts of a president of the United States to pressure officials otherwise, was able to ensure that the individual who won the most votes in Michigan’s 2020 presidential election—Joe Biden—was rightfully awarded our state’s electoral votes and, with them, the presidency.

Because of those citizens and their determination, what started as the lowest moment of the 2020 election became the most inspiring. Facts and the rule of law carried the day, and truth triumphed.

The voters won.

And together we forged another chapter of history where democracy prevailed—just as it had in 1965, when everyday citizens stood at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and marched forward to demand that those in power similarly fulfill the American promise of one person, one vote.

It was an inspiring capstone to a challenging time and a reminder that, while we can accomplish much as individual warriors, we can achieve much more when we work together.

We all have the spark within us to become purposeful warriors. As individuals fighting with focus and a plan, we can do tremendous things to advance our hopes, vision, and goals and define our future.

We see that spark in the stories of warriors who take on those who try to delegitimize their work, their voices, and their integrity. It’s there in the stories of everyday heroes who fight to make their corner of the world a little bit more just. All around us we see people—in our families, our workplaces, and our communities—rejecting divisiveness and fear to uplift our common humanity.

And when we take that notion one step further, and collectively harness our power as a united team of purposeful warriors, we build a force for change that can move mountains. The magnitude of what we can accomplish grows exponentially when we join with others who are similarly committed to rising above the noise and living authentic and meaningful lives.

We can envision a community filled with purposeful warriors who stand up for themselves and each other, recognizing our commonalities, seeking truth, embracing discomfort, questioning assumptions, fighting with grace and grit, and never giving up.

As purposeful warriors we can—indeed, must—use that spirit to define what comes next. And together we can forge a collective, prosperous, united path alongside others who choose to be purposeful warriors too.

We can all choose to respond to twists and turns and stand, undeterred, at the foot of the metaphorical Edmund Pettus Bridge. Just as in 1965, and just as in 2020, wherever there are serious and real threats to rights and freedoms, to the values of inclusion, respect, fairness, and equality that our country was founded upon, we can be the ones to lead the way out of the abyss.

We have the power to decide the future of our nation.

We have the power to make sure that our kids are safe and can go to school free from fear of gun violence, that women will have control over their own bodies, and that we all will have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.

We have the power to ensure that the freedom to vote—our democracy—will remain secure.

Actualizing that power means working together to push ahead in service of who we are, the rights we stand for, and the values and community we seek to protect. One where democracy thrives and justice prevails. One where different perspectives and mutual respect are valued. A society that is inclusive, fair, filled with warriors who honor every voice and revel in our common humanity.

That is the world I am fighting for. That is the world the stories and experiences shared throughout this book can embolden us all to fight for. And that is the world that, fighting together as purposeful warriors, we all can build together.

I hope that you’ll join me.

From The Purposeful Warrior: Standing Up for What’s Right When the Stakes Are High by Jocelyn Benson, published by The Open Field, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. © 2025 by Jocelyn Benson.

Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from THE PURPOSEFUL WARRIOR by Jocelyn Benson, Foreword by Amanda Seyfried, read by Jocelyn Benson, Amanda Seyfried, and Maria Shriver. © 2025 Jocelyn Benson, ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.